Winter’s first snowstorm dusted the Big Apple with a blanket of white, delayed flights, closed schools — and created driving havoc on Long Island after snow plow operators staged a wildcat sickout.

Gov. Pataki declared a state of emergency in Nassau and Suffolk counties after only 30 of the 440 state workers showed up to ready roads for the morning commute.

Snow-removal efforts were crippled, causing a spate of fender-benders and two accidents in which cars overturned, officials said.

State Transportation Department spokesman Michael Fleischer accused the workers of “putting people’s lives in jeopardy. When Long Islanders needed them, they did not show up on purpose.”

Pataki made the National Guard available, but the department brought in workers from other parts of the state and, by evening, plowing was largely back to normal.

Still, Pataki ordered state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to seek a court order requiring an immediate return to work.

“We will not tolerate this outrageous and cowardly strike,” he declared.

A spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents the workers — who have been without a contract since April — said the union had nothing to do with the sickout.

The storm dumped 2.5 inches in Central Park, 3 inches in The Bronx and 3 in Ronkonkoma, L.I. But it largely wimped out by dumping most of its precipitation offshore.

The snow should have tapered off by early this morning, but today will still be bitterly cold, the National Weather Service says. Highs will be in the low 20s, but winds of 20 to 30 mph will make it feel like 10 to 20 below zero.

If Long Island was caught off guard, the Big Apple was ready, sending out snow-plow crews at 6a.m. The crews manned 1,272 plows and 353 spreaders, which dumped 5,000 tons of salt.

The region’s three major airports had delays of between 30 minutes and two hours, and there were school closings on Long Island and in Westchester and Rockland counties.

For Harley Seligman, a 12-year-old from Larchmont, the storm was a wonderful chance to make snowballs.

“The snow was great for packing!” he exclaimed.

Alin Frost, an Australian farmer visiting Manhattan, was delighted, too.

“It is superb. It’s lovely. I have never seen snow before this morning. It’s a new ballgame for me,” he said in Central Park.